Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories of cognitive development provide the psychological foundations for constructivist approaches to teaching and learning. Constructivists believe that children must form their own understanding of the world in which they live. Adults help guide this knowledge construction process by providing structure and support.

Both Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories of cognitive development are concerned with qualitative changes in children's thinking. Piaget argued that cognitive development involved major transformations in the way knowledge is organized. Vygotsky believed that cognitive development represented changes in the cultural tools children use to make sense of their world.

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget proposed that two basic principles guide children's intellectual development: organization and adaptation. As children mature, their knowledge schemes are integrated and reorganized into more complex systems that are better adapted to their environment. Adaptation of knowledge schemes occurs through the process of assimilation and accommodation. Through the process of assimilation, children mold information to fit existing knowledge structures. Through the process of accommodation, children change their schemes to restore a state of equilibrium. The process of assimilation and accommodation explains changes in cognition at all ages.

Piaget proposed that development follows an invariant sequence. The early childhood years are characterized by two stages. During the sensorimotor period (birth to 2 years), children acquire schemes for goal-directed behavior and object permanence. In the preoperational stage (2 to 7 years), children begin to use words, numbers, gestures, and images to represent objects in their environment. Children also begin to form intuitive theories to explain events in their environment that can have a lasting influence on learning. The major limitations of preoperational thinking are egocentrism, centration, and rigidity of thinking.

The elementary and secondary school years are characterized by two additional stages. During the concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years), children begin to use mental operations to think about events and objects in their environment. The mental operations that appear in this stage are classification, seriation, and conservation. These mental operations can only be applied to concrete stimuli that are present in the child's environment. In the last stage of cognitive development, formal operations (11 years to adult), adolescents and adults can think about abstract...

Source: highered.mcgraw-hill.com

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Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, wrote an interesting piece in response to last year's edge.org question, "What is your dangerous idea?" His response was: "The Internet may harbor social perils our inhibitory circuitry was not designed to handle in evolution." From the essay: "The Internet inadvertently undermines the quality of human interaction, allowing destructive emotional impulses freer reign under specific circumstances. The reason is a neural fluke that results in cyber-disinhibition of brain systems that keep our more unruly urges in check. The tech problem: a major disconnect between the ways our brains are wired to connect, and the interface offered in online interactions

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Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, wrote an interesting piece in response to last year's edge.org question, "What is your dangerous idea?" His response was: "The Internet may harbor social perils our inhibitory circuitry was not designed to handle in evolution." From the essay: "The Internet inadvertently undermines the quality of human interaction, allowing destructive emotional impulses freer reign under specific circumstances. The reason is a neural fluke that results in cyber-disinhibition of brain systems that keep our more unruly urges in check. The tech problem: a major disconnect between the ways our brains are wired to connect, and the interface offered in online interactions

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